TheBostonStrangler

Father Christmas by the Kinks is my personal favorite.

I just watched the episode where Kim and Lindsay run over Millie's dog today and Mr. Fredericks starts dating Bill's mom - probably my favorite episode in the series. Brilliant stuff. Mr. Weir getting fired up over Mama's Got A Squeezebox is brilliant.

I just got back from the show as well. A very well-done effort, albeit a show that didn't seem to have one insane highlight to remember it by. Based on what I saw live, basically every match was good, but every ending felt just a bit rushed. Still, the crowd was wicked into it the entire time. Very nice show, and getting to see Joe win the title was a great moment.

I'll be there live with some friends. I haven't seen much TNA lately, but a chance to see Joe finally win the title is enough to get me to attend.

Superbad is what happens when you get really smart people together, and have them make a movie that has more or less no plot whatsoever. This is not a "good movie" by any stretch of the imagination. However, it is absolutely hilarious, and it does absolutely everything that it promises it'll do.

No Darjeeling yet, so I'll go with the first four: 1) Rushmore 2) Bottle Rocket 3) Royal Tenenbaums 4) Life Aquatic Rushmore is absolute brilliance. I've always thought that The Royal Tenenbaums was overrated - it's got some great stuff in it, no doubt. But it was a little too contrived for my tastes - too eventful, I guess. It just didn't seem to mesh with a guy whose first two movies were more understated. Bottle Rocket is brilliant, and would rank first if it wasn't for Rushmore's amazitude.

I liked some of what was going on tonight, particularly the House/Foreman dynamic. It was nice to see House legitimately confused and caught off-guard by Foreman ultimately liking the job. But I thought the stuff with the mirror patient and the contestants lacked the subtlety that the show usually has. It was blatant and helped turn them into one-note characters (particularly the plastic surgeon). The one exception I would have there would be Cutthroat Bitch - the stuff with her character helped change her into a deeper character. Still, I think that although parts of the episode were really heavy-handed, it sets up other parts of the show well for the long run. Not their best episode, but the good long-term planning behind it was evident.

One nominee I have for a song that is clearly not the worst song ever written, but a song I hate with a blinding passion: Free Falling by Tom Petty. Dear lord, do I hate that song. And I seem to be the only person on Earth who hates this song, so I continually get shit over hating this song. Oh well. Sorry that the song sucks. However, the absolute worst song I've ever heard is Sheryl Crow's cover of Sweet Child O' Mine. Look it up at your own discretion - I will never, ever link to that song. It's the worst trashing of a classic that I've ever heard, and I've heard Limp Bizkit's version of Behind Blue Eyes.

I mean, it's cool that it's Tony at all, but am I the only one who's a little bothered by the fact that Tony died on-screen in Season 5? And sure, there was a little bit of controversy over that, but considering he's been referenced as dead for the past couple seasons, it seems pretty unreasonable to do this. With that being said, Jack vs. Tony will indeed rock.

Unless there was some minute reference to it that I missed, no, it's been untouched. Hopefully they pull it out of hte vault a couple of years down the line for a real shock.

They needed to have some reason that they wouldn't have access to her mother's medical records, so Ukranian descent seems like as good a reason as any. It wasn't offputting or anything - a total non-issue for me. Good episode so far - should be interesting to see what Foreman's return is like for the dynamic.

The ALCS will be on FOX next week, and that'll pre-empt almost all of Fox's programming for the week, I assume. Thankfully, with the way the schedule is set up, it looks like the 23rd hits on the gap between the ALCS and World Series, or on a scheduled off-day, so we'll be good to go for House that day.

That seems pretty random, considering Prince's good history with the internet before, as well as his anti-record label sentiment over the past couple decades. I guess he's just all about having total control over his own music, and doesn't want anyone else to have it - the internet, record companies, anyone.

To be fair, the internet experience on the iPhone is significantly better than it is on most smartphones (in the limited hands-on time I've had with an iPhone). But I think the main point there is true - no one's buying the iPhone simply to use it as a cell phone. It's a device that allows you to make your pocket less cluttered with gadgets, and it succeeds admirably at that. And for any iPhone early adopters feeling screwed: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/ - a $100 credit at the Apple Store to all existing iPhone owners not covered by rebate plans.

I think Apple did a great job with their set of updates yesterday. Some people don't seem to be big fans, but I'm not quite sure why the criticism is there. The majority of the unhappiness seems to come from the fact that the iPod Touch doesn't have the storage capacity that the iPod Classics do. However, it's a simple question of storage capacity versus battery life and form factor. If you look at the battery comparisons between the flash-based Touch and the hard drive-based Classic, the Classic somehow gets better battery life despite having the moving parts of a hard drive. Quite simply, that means that the full-size screen, touch interface, advanced processor, and WiFi capabilities eat up a ton of battery life. If they wanted to put a hard drive into the Touch, they'd have to add an extremely large battery on top of that just to get it back to the already-modest battery capabilities of the current touch. It'd add to the cost, and it'd also make the unit significantly chunkier than it already is. With the limits of flash technology today, Apple had to make a choice, and they went with Flash. This decision makes a lot more sense when you look at the iPod Touch as a new line of iPods, instead of a continuation of the previous line. If you want a successor to the 5th gen iPods, that's what the Classic is there for. Tons of storage, an updated UI with a (supposedly just OK) version of CoverFlow, and battery life that blows away anything Apple's ever put out (40 hours of audio/7 hours of video for the 160GB model). Meanwhile, the Touch is in its first generation. It's not continuing on any traditions, unless you count the iPhone. And if you do count the iPhone, this is a clear evolution on storage size in a time period of less than three months. I'm sure that Apple will gladly up the storage capacity to 16 GB/32 GB as soon as the memory is cheap enough, viable enough, and widely available to satisfy the massive, massive demand that Apple has for flash memory. I would guess that towards the end of the first quarter of 2008, we'll see that bump. It's just like what happened with the first gen iPod: It had a small storage capacity, and after it had been developed a bit further and tech prices came down, fuller-featured models that satisfied the need for increased storage became available. Overall, the iPod line has never looked better. You've got a great ultra-portable entry choice with the Shuffle, a redesigned Nano capable of video for those who don't want to spend a ton, the Classic for people needing to satiate their desire to have their entire library on the go with them, and the iPod Touch/iPhone to split the high end market into people who want a phone, and people who don't. It's true that, as of now, there isn't one iPod that takes care of everyone perfectly all at once. But in a year or so, when flash memory prices drop, and 32 GB (or even 64 GB) Touches become available, that problem should go away.

I've never understood the attraction to the big, historical epic types of movies. Gladiator, Braveheart, and Master & Commander are three examples of critically acclaimed (and well-liked) movies that I just find boring to the extreme.

Mousehunt - great stuff by Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, with great minor roles by Vicki Lewis from Newsradio, the guy who played Mr. Pitt on Seinfeld, and perhaps my favorite comedic role for Christopher Walken ever - Caesar the Exterminator. Matrix: Reloaded - one of the best action movies ever, and most of the dialogue just needs a couple viewings to really understand. After that, great stuff every time. Temple of Doom - a lot of people put this below the other two Indiana Jones movies, but I think this might be my favorite of them. The half hour-long opening action sequence is nothing short of awesome, the plot is badass, the minecart chase/bridge scene at the end is great, and anyone that doesn't love Short Round can eat a dick. Sleepy Hollow - another great Walken performance, and Depp's a lot of fun in this movie. This was an example of Tim Burton really putting his own twist on an estabished story successfully. Undercover Brother - Eddie Griffin's pretty good in this movie, and Dave Chappelle as Conspiracy Brother is hilarious stuff. Chi McBride's a great boss, Chris Kattan's a good evil lackey, Denise Richards in the shower scene is phenomenally hot, and Neil Patrick Harris pre-career resurgence is absolute gold as the affirmative action hire.

I will go on record as saying that any episode of South Park that features: - A nuclear weapon in Hilary Clinton's vagina - The British navy invading America with old wooden ships - The Queen of England shooting herself in the head ...is undeniably a good episode.

Some candidates for most surprising 24 moment: - Chappelle's execution. NO way I expected that to actually go down. So damn hardcore. - The nuke this season. Again, no way that was actually gonna happen, but it did. - Teri's death, as mentioned by a few others. - Bluetooth Guy being revealed as Graeme Bauer was an incredible shock that I don't think anybody could have seen coming.

I never re-used an entire match, although I think we've all recycled spots from previous matches. If you wanna resubmit a match that lost, go right ahead. But usually there's a reason it lost, so beware.

As long as you're getting a Dual Core, it's not a gigantic difference between some of the smaller levels. But the memory has large, noticeable differences - particularly between 512 MB and 1 GB at this stage in the game.

The 2K7 demo is out on the Marketplace today. Downloading for me now - can't wait to give it a spin.

Real Name: Patrick Hannon Characters Portrayed: The Boston Strangler In SWF Since: June 2001, about 8 months after the place started up Real-Life Height: 6'2" Real-Life Weight: 185 Real-Life Age: 21 Real-Life Location: School in Worcester, MA - home in Cambridge, MA Picture: Just Facebook me - if you were willing to do it for Mak, you can do it for me too, you parasites. Education: Three months from graduating from Holy Cross in Worcester, MA with a degree in English and a minor in What The Fuck Am I Gonna Do With My Life Accomplishments Outside of SWF: I wrote the football and basketball beats for the school paper this year after a couple years doing less glamorous stuff, I wrote and directed my own play in high school, I got lost at sea in Hawaii for 15 hours a couple summer ago, and I've been in the business end of an ambulance a total of 5 times during my college career. Favorite Band: U2, Green Day, and the Dropkick Murphys - one of the three, depending on the day Favorite Song: Where The Streets Have No Name - U2 Favorite Movie: American Beauty Virgin? Explain.: Yes, because being a bisexual in an all-boys Catholic high school fucks you up sex-wise Accomplishments Within SWF: IGNJL TV, Euro, and World champ, star of the greatest JL stable of all time (The Alley 4 lyfe!), first man to hold JL World and Euro title at same time, two-time member of the Clan, IGNWF Hardcore Champion, Magnificent Seven original member, runner-up for feud of the year 2002-2003 (w./ Erek Taylor), SWF World Champion, Mall Brawl winner (despite Z telling me there was no chance he'd let me win that cameo appearance), JL head booker, SWF co-booker (and the first SWF booker not to have held the world title at the time he was booking - desperation is sweet) Favorite SWF Moment: Edwin vs. Grand Slam, retirement match. I think me and Z have argued this versus the Raynor/Edwin match at least 10 times, and we've made exactly zero headground on that one. For myself, having Taylor write me no-selling a car was pretty fucking badass. Favorite SWF Writer (All-Time): I was always partial to Edwin and Thugg - the two of them knew how to write matches that fit their characters perfectly. And Axis never got his due. Favorite SWF Writer (Current): I honestly don't follow this place enough to answer, so I'll answer WC/Landon/Toxxic since I know them. Why You Joined The SWF: I was bored during my summer break. That's basically it, and it kept me entertained from June 2001 till the end of 2003.

It would have been pretty easy to get Logan involved with Graeme involved. Just have Graeme escape, have Jack run out of leads, and then he goes to Logan trying to get information to help capture Graeme and find Fayed. Logan can't be anything more than a facilitator of past info now, so having him finger Graeme, not Phillip, would have been a lot nicer because of the hands-on relationship between the two. We never saw Logan and Phillip working together - having Logan give Jack's dad up isn't nearly as cool. If anything, I think it makes less sense to get Logan involved now that the one real link to him is eliminated and in the past.

Am I the only person who's really pissed that Graeme got killed like a little bitch? Graeme had just successfully resisted Jack's torture, had revealed the Palmer/Tony/Michelle killings, had been behind the transfer of nukes, and spent the entirety of Season 5 making the President of the United States into his personal bitch. This guy was one of the most badass villians the show had ever had. Sure, he was a whiny sniveling bitch at times, but that just reinforces how much you hate the guy. And what happens? Daddy injects him with something and kills off a character who had a LOT more to do - the entire storyline with Jack and Graeme's wife, or the connections between Graeme and Logan, etc. I love James Cromwell, and I'm sure he'll do fine, but it seems like an unnecessary twist that was overly predictable and will probably hurt the show in both the short and long run.